August 8
is a random and epic day in August. Things that happened today * 870 – Treaty of Meerssen: King Louis the German and his half-brother Charles the Bald partition the Middle Frankish Kingdom into two larger east and west divisions. * 1220 – Sweden is defeated by Estonian tribes in the Battle of Lihula. * 1264 – Mudéjar revolt: Muslim rebel forces took the Alcázar of Jerez de la Frontera after defeating the Castilian garrison. * 1503 – King James IV of Scotland marries Margaret Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII of England at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh, Scotland. * 1509 – Krishnadeva Raya is crowned Emperor of Vijayanagara at Chittoor. * 1576 – The cornerstone for Tycho Brahe's Uraniborg observatory is laid on the island of Hven. * 1585 – John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in search of the Northwest Passage. * 1588 – Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines: The naval engagement ends, ending the Spanish Armada's attempt to invade England. * 1605 – The city of Oulu, Finland, is founded by Charles IX of Sweden. * 1647 – The Irish Confederate Wars and Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Battle of Dungan's Hill: English Parliamentary forces defeat Irish forces. * 1648 – Mehmed IV (1648–1687) succeeds Ibrahim I (1640–1648) as Ottoman Emperor. * 1709 – Bartolomeu de Gusmão demonstrates the lifting power of hot air in an audience before the king of Portugal in Lisbon, Portugal. * 1786 – Mont Blanc on the French-Italian border is climbed for the first time by Jacques Balmat and Dr. Michel-Gabriel Paccard. * 1793 – The insurrection of Lyon occurs during the French Revolution. * 1794 – Joseph Whidbey leads an expedition to search for the Northwest Passage near Juneau, Alaska. * 1831 – Four hundred Shawnee people agree to relinquish their lands in Ohio in exchange for land west of the Mississippi River in the Treaty of Wapakoneta.1 * 1844 – The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, headed by Brigham Young, is reaffirmed as the leading body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). * 1863 – American Civil War: Following his defeat in the Battle of Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis (which is refused upon receipt). * 1870 – The Republic of Ploiești, a failed Radical-Liberal rising against Domnitor Carol of Romania. * 1876 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph. * 1908 – Wilbur Wright makes his first flight at a racecourse at Le Mans, France. It is the Wright Brothers' first public flight. * 1918 – World War I: The Battle of Amiens begins a string of almost continuous Allied victories with a push through the German front lines (Hundred Days Offensive). * 1919 – The Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919 is signed. It establishes peaceful relations between Afghanistan and the UK, and confirms the Durand line as the mutual border. In return, the UK is no longer obligated to subsidize the Afghan government.2 * 1929 – The German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight. * 1940 – The "Aufbau Ost" directive is signed by Wilhelm Keitel. * 1942 – Quit India Movement is launched in India against the British rule in response to Mohandas Gandhi's call for swaraj or complete independence. * 1945 – The London Charter is signed by France, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States, establishing the laws and procedures for the Nuremberg trials. * 1946 – First flight of the Convair B-36, the world's first mass-produced nuclear weapon delivery vehicle, the heaviest mass-produced piston-engined aircraft, with the longest wingspan of any military aircraft, and the first bomber with intercontinental range. * 1963 – Great Train Robbery: In England, a gang of 15 train robbers steal £2.6 million in bank notes. * 1963 – The Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), the current ruling party of Zimbabwe, is formed by a split from the Zimbabwe African People's Union. * 1967 – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is founded by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. * 1969 – At a zebra crossing in London, photographer Iain Macmillan takes the iconic photo that becomes the cover image of the Beatles' album Abbey Road. * 1973 – Kim Dae-jung, a South Korean politician and later president of South Korea, is kidnapped. * 1974 – President Richard Nixon, in a nationwide television address, announces his resignation from the office of the President of the United States effective noon the next day. * 1988 – The 8888 Uprising begins in Rangoon (Yangon), Burma (Myanmar). Led by students, hundreds of thousands join in nationwide protests against the one-party regime. On September 18, the demonstrations end in a military crackdown, killing thousands. * 1988 – The first night baseball game in the history of Chicago's Wrigley Field (game was rained out in the fourth inning).3 * 1989 – Space Shuttle program: STS-28 Mission: Space Shuttle Columbia takes off on a secret five-day military mission. * 1990 – Iraq occupies Kuwait and the state is annexed to Iraq. This would lead to the Gulf War shortly afterward. * 1991 – The Warsaw radio mast, at one time the tallest construction ever built, collapses. * 1993 – The 7.8 Mw  Guam earthquake shakes the island with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), causing around $250 million in damage and injuring up to 71 people. * 1998 – Iranian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan is raided by Taliban leading to the deaths of ten Iranian diplomats and a journalist. * 2000 – Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor and 30 years after its discovery by undersea explorer E. Lee Spence. * 2007 – An EF2 tornado touches down in Kings County and Richmond County, New York, the most powerful tornado in New York to date and the first in Brooklyn since 1889. * 2008 – A EuroCity express train en route from Kraków, Poland to Prague, Czech Republic strikes a part of a motorway bridge that had fallen onto the railroad track near Studénka railway station in the Czech Republic and derails, killing eight people and injuring 64 others. * 2010 – China Floods: A mudslide in Zhugqu County, Gansu, China, kills more than 1,400 people. * 2013 – A suicide bombing at a funeral in the Pakistani city of Quetta kills at least 31 people. * 2015 – Eight people are killed in a shooting in Harris County, Texas. * 2016 – Terrorists attack a government hospital in Quetta, Pakistan with a suicide blast and shooting, killing between 70 and 94 people, and injuring around 130 others. Holidays * Ceasefire Day (end of Iran-Iraq War)8 (Iraqi Kurdistan) * Christian Feast Day: ** Altmann of Passau ** Cyriacus ** Dominic de Guzmán, founder of the Dominican Order. ** Four Crowned Martyrs ** Pope Hormisdas ** Largus ** Mary MacKillop ** Smaragdus (and companions) ** August 8 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) * Earliest day on which Children's Day can fall, while August 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Sunday in August. (Argentina) * Earliest day on which Defence Forces Day can fall, while August 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Tuesday in August. (Zimbabwe) * Earliest day on which Father's Day can fall, while August 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Sunday in August. (Brazil, Samoa) * Earliest day on which Heroes' Day can fall, while August 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Monday in August. (Zimbabwe) * Earliest day on which Melon Day can fall, while August 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Sunday in August. (Turkmenistan) * Earliest day on which Sports Day can fall, while August 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Saturday in August. (Russia) * Father's Day or Bā bā Day (爸爸節), Bā Bā is Mandarin for "father" and "8-8", or August 8. (Mongolia, Taiwan) * Happiness Happens Day * International Cat Day * Namesday of the Queen (Sweden) * Nane Nane Day (Tanzania) * Signal Troops Day (Ukraine) Category:Days Category:Randomness Category:Stuff